APRIL (IS THE CRUELLEST MONTH) (2011) is a series of kaleidoscopic abstractions that expands the Mandalas series of digital photographic montages. The title is taken from T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land to refer to the month in which I was in a major car collision that totaled my car (and from which I fortunately walked away without major physical injury).
The day after, enduring incredible pain and unable to walk without aid, I returned to my car and photographed what remained of my Honda Element. During recovery, I began to create these images as a gesture of creative renewal and play in order to make sense of the incredible destruction that occurred mere days before.
Losing myself in twisted metal, crumpled fiberglass, and shattered glass, the broken pieces fused together into highly aestheticized reconfigurations that created a new logic to the forms. These new shapes, textures, and forms suggest a sublime beauty inherent in violence and destruction that is at once compelling and cruel.
Featured here are selections from a larger body of images.